This invention relates to a longwall mineral mining installation.
A typical longwall mineral mining installation has a longwall scraper-chain conveyor. A plough is reciprocable along a guide provided at the face side of the conveyor. Both the conveyor and the plough are driven by drive stations provided at the ends of the conveyor. The drive stations each have a drive frame provided with separate drives for the conveyor and the plough, these drives being positioned at the goaf sides of their drive frames. Each drive station may be provided with a support beam which extends substantially parallel to its drive frame. Each support beam is attached to a floor plate fastened to the base of the associated drive frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,504,999 describes an installation of this type, each support beam of the installation being attached rigidly to its associated drive frame, thereby constituting a bracing girder which acts as an abutment for tensioning rams used to tension the longwall conveyor in the longitudinal direction. The plough drive and the conveyor drive of each drive station are positioned between the associated support beam and the conveyor. The face-side plough guide extends to the ends of the drive frames, so that material can be won along the entire length of the installation. The main disadvantage of this type of installation is that it is extremely difficult to reposition the drive stations to adapt the installation to different seam conditions. In particular, difficulties arise where the entire conveyor (including the drive stations) has to be tilted to alter the cutting horizon of the plough.
The aim of the invention is to provide a longwall mineral mining installation which overcomes this disadvantage.